Saturday Camera Stores

Hello everyone,

I'm somewhat new to the area. Does anyone have a recommendation for a reliable camera store in NYC, Westchester, or Northern NJ that is open on a Saturday?

I'm so frustrated with B&H, Andorama, Beach Camera, etc. having the most inconvenient hours and shutting their doors for weeks at a time. JR is ok for hardware if you know exactly what you want beforehand, but they cater nearly exclusively to di****l so CVS has better film selection.

Thank you!

calumet on west 22nd street, also right across the street is fotocare another well stocked store.

I always use Unique Photo on rt 46, in Fairfield NJ. I haven't bought ant equipment from them, but I get all my film, and darkroom supplies there. Great staff, and very knowlegable (sp). And there's a coffee shop in the store.

I've noticed that a couple of the big camera stores seem to always close on Friday nights through Saturday. I think that if they're shutting their doors at those times it's likely the store is owned by conservative Jewish people. Sabbath starts Friday at Sunset and goes through Saturday. FYI, if they are conservative they cannot just hire some non Jews to run their store on Saturday. It would be a violation of their religion's view on conducting business on a holy day. There are actually some pretty big communities of really conservative Hasidim in NYC and the surrounding area. When I worked there they took the no exchanging $$$ on the Sabbath thing VERY seriously. It's an inconvenience their being closed on certain days, but we can hardly blame them for actually following the rules of their religion. It's no different than some places not allowing liquor stores to open till noon on Sunday if at all. Not everyone lives in a 24/7 all access world. Some people feel they have religious traditions they must still abide by.

redlineSPI said:

................ CVS has better film selection.

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I'm glad that I'm not the only one that has noticed this, and it's not just up here in CT I see. The one place that you can walk into and always find a wide (not great) selection of film is CVS. In my area they carry Kodak Gold 200, 400, 800, Ektar 100, BW400CN, 400TX, and 400 High Definition.

As for your camera store plight, I can't help you unless you are willing to take the train to Milford CT, you can actually see Milford photo from the platform of the train station, but they can be hit or miss on film selection as well, I gave up on them after I made a one hour drive down there and they were out of 120 black and white film. Yes, they were out of 120 black and white film, this is a camera store that is a preferred vendor for a college photography program.

magkelly said:

I've noticed that a couple of the big camera stores seem to always close on Friday nights through Saturday. I think that if they're shutting their doors at those times it's likely the store is owned by conservative Jewish people. Sabbath starts Friday at Sunset and goes through Saturday. FYI, if they are conservative they cannot just hire some non Jews to run their store on Saturday. It would be a violation of their religion's view on conducting business on a holy day. There are actually some pretty big communities of really conservative Hasidim in NYC and the surrounding area. When I worked there they took the no exchanging $$$ on the Sabbath thing VERY seriously. It's an inconvenience their being closed on certain days, but we can hardly blame them for actually following the rules of their religion. It's no different than some places not allowing liquor stores to open till noon on Sunday if at all. Not everyone lives in a 24/7 all access world. Some people feel they have religious traditions they must still abide by.

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Essentially correct. Orthodox Jews take the restrictions on doing business on the Sabbath (Friday sundown to Saturday sundown) very seriously. Also, most Jewish holidays (not all holidays have a restriction against working). And since the holidays begin at sundown, you need to give your employees time to get home by sundown. So, for example, B&H closes at 2pm on Friday.

Conservative Jews (less observant that Orthodox) and Reform Jews (less observant than Conservative) are less restrictive. So, for example, Orthodox Jews may refrain from work the entire holiday, but Conservative Jews just the first day or two.

I assume the website can stay up since as long as it's not taking orders it's passive. I would guess that if there was a problem with the website, repairs would not start until after Sabbath.

Perhaps more than you wanted to know.

magkelly said:

I've noticed that a couple of the big camera stores seem to always close on Friday nights through Saturday. I think that if they're shutting their doors at those times it's likely the store is owned by conservative Jewish people. Sabbath starts Friday at Sunset and goes through Saturday. FYI, if they are conservative they cannot just hire some non Jews to run their store on Saturday. It would be a violation of their religion's view on conducting business on a holy day. There are actually some pretty big communities of really conservative Hasidim in NYC and the surrounding area. When I worked there they took the no exchanging $$$ on the Sabbath thing VERY seriously. It's an inconvenience their being closed on certain days, but we can hardly blame them for actually following the rules of their religion. It's no different than some places not allowing liquor stores to open till noon on Sunday if at all. Not everyone lives in a 24/7 all access world. Some people feel they have religious traditions they must still abide by.

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I hope my question was not interpreted to be antisemitic in any way. The owners of the stores are more than welcome to run their business however they chose, for whatever reasons they choose. It is unfortunate for both the owners and myself that our schedules do not always align and I am simply looking for an alternative source of material.

Thank you for the help everyone. Caulmet appears to be the place for me this weekend.

CVS is a perfectly good source of a quick roll of film. I've never come across an expired roll on their shelves (yet).

My suggestion...stock up from B&H when they are open. That's what I do. Painless.

redlineSPI said:

I hope my question was not interpreted to be antisemitic in any way...

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Didn't come across that way to me.

K&M Camera, which is about two blocks south of Canal on Broadway (west side of the street). Prices are comparable to B&H and Adorama. Calumet is usually a bit more.

Here's a link: Dead Link Removed

redlineSPI said:

I hope my question was not interpreted to be antisemitic in any way. The owners of the stores are more than welcome to run their business however they chose, for whatever reasons they choose. It is unfortunate for both the owners and myself that our schedules do not always align and I am simply looking for an alternative source of material.

Thank you for the help everyone. Caulmet appears to be the place for me this weekend.

CVS is a perfectly good source of a quick roll of film. I've never come across an expired roll on their shelves (yet).

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Apologies for coming late to this thread, but I'd like to explain:

At Adorama we do appreciate that our closing times can be inconvenient to some of our potential customers.
As others have noted, Adorama's owner is an observant orthodox Jewish gentleman, whose beliefs prohibit him - his family and his business - from operating on the Sabbath and on many of the religious holidays (which all begin an hour prior to sunset the evening before the day of the holiday, which is why we close early on Fridays).

We can't employ non-Jews here during those days, because to do so would involve the company conducting business - which is forbidden in Jewish Law.

Most holidays are actually only one or two days; two are week-long holidays. We do try to minimize inconvenience to our customers, by publicizing our closing dates well in advance.
After the holiday(s) end(s), we do reopen our sales and shipping departments as soon as possible in order to deal with the inevitable backlog of orders.
We would also take on add additional staff in the customer service, sales and shipping departments if necessary to help reduce backlogs and speed up the service to our customers.

In this era of 24-hour commerce which seems to take for granted that we all sleep with our i-phones under our pillows and work a relentless 60 or 70 hours a week, this is a special time for us to be with family and friends.

I guess it's unusual to find that there really are still people who consider their spiritual duty to be more important than making an honest buck out of our customers at every opportunity. I receive frequent emails from customers who state that in this day and age it is comforting to know there are people around who do not place money before all else.

Many businesses in the US and elsewhere in the world force employees to work on holidays when the time is better spent with their friends and families - or just relaxing by themselves

We are grateful for the understanding of our customers that this is an important element of our owner's value system. Perhaps the following links to articles in the Washington Post & the New York Times will help to make some sense of our closure policies:

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/...XSHaK6Jm4.html


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/te...=1&oref=slogin

We only have an extended closure periods twice a year - not for Easter & Xmas! - but for Sukkot (September/Ostober) and Passover (March/April).
We close on Saturdays but are open on Sundays - and all our opening / closing times are posted on our website.

I hope this helps; BTW I'm only an email away for advice and / or after-sales support with any order from Adorama Camera.

I am not Jewish, but certainly have some extra respect for Adorama (and the other orthodox Jewish owned camera stores) that put their faith and family ahead of their work schedule. These actions speak louder than the words on the closed sign (or website popup).